StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm features mutating DNA, yetis from space

The first previews for the upcoming StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm are in, …

The first chapter of the StarCraft II trilogy launched late last year, and it'll likely be quite some time before we can finally play the second entry, Heart of the Swarm. But at least we finally have some details. Blizzard recently gave a select few members of the press the chance to head inside its California headquarters to get some hands-on time with the game, and Ars has rounded up the best coverage available to give you a good idea of what the game will be like. So what can we expect? More of the same, but with yetis, RPG-style mutation, and a deeper look into the life of the Zerg.

Previously on StarCraft...

Heart of the Swarm continues where Wings of Liberty left off, though we're still not entirely clear where the two meet. Kerrigan is the protagonist this time around, and (as per the ending of the previous game) she looks human, and is rocking a Ghost uniform, as well as some Zerg dreadlocks. It's not clear where exactly she stands, but she can still control the Zerg hordes.

"She as a human was always a very powerful psionic," lead writer Brian Kindregan told Joystiq. "So clearly, not all is as it seems. You find yourself early on in the game running around trying to regain control of the Swarm. Why she's doing that is a big question that will be answered as people play the game."

Naturally Blizzard isn't giving much away storywise, but it looks like the story will play out much in the same way as it did in the previous game, with in-between mission portions where you can talk to other characters—including two Zerg brood assistants named Abathur and Izsha—to get information about a Zerg craft called the Leviathan. The new game will also shed some light onto the Zerg as a race, by exploring "the day-to-day life of Zerg and what kinds of schisms might develop."

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

It's evolution, baby

Replacing the laboratory from the first game is the Evolution Chamber, which is where you'll be able to upgrade units. You collect mutagen while in battle which can then be spent on improving the abilities of your swarm, making them faster or stronger, or even evolving them into all new units. A Baneling, for instance, can eventually be turned into something called a Splitterling, which, as the name implies, splits into two when it dies.

Kerrigan will be an actual playable character in the game, featured in most, if not all, of Heart of the Swarm's 20 missions. She can't die, but instead will simply respawn upon death. She'll automatically earn new abilities as you complete missions, and these will fall into one of four different battle focuses; essentially different classes.

You can pick which focus you want to utilize before each mission and this will give you access to the abilities you've unlocked for it. The two on display in the demo were Spec-Ops—which gives Kerrigan access to Ghost-like abilities, like spawning a weaker clone or performing a stun attack—and Corruption, which is much more Zerg-centric, with poison clouds and enemies that turn into broodlings. There are four classes in all, with five abilities each, which should amount to a good deal of flexibility for different play styles.

On a mission

When it comes to the missions themselves, there were two playable at the demo, though they weren't the first chronological missions from the campaign. The first tied directly to Kerrigan's new identity crisis, as she's forced to race against a challenging Zerg queen to collect eggs to strengthen her swarm and prove that she's still in control. Meanwhile, you'll need to fight off swarms of feral Zerg.

The second mission, which takes place on StarCraft's version of Hoth, an ice planet called Kaldir, shows off the Zerg's adaptive abilities. Initially your units will periodically freeze, leaving them vulnerable to attack. But as it turns out, you can kill yetis, absorb their DNA, and then churn out new units that aren't affected by the weather. Eventually the Protoss will show up, and with your newly found immunity, the freezing winds will actually serve as an advantage over your opponents, as they will be susceptible to the cold.

The early first-look was focused entirely on the single-player campaign, with no multiplayer details at all. And while the game is actually just the middle third of a much bigger experience, Kindregan said that it will stand on its own as a complete experience.

"It is a complete story of Sarah Kerrigan and the Zerg," he explained. "We definitely want Heart of the Swarm to have its own satisfying ending."

As for when we'll be able to see that ending, in traditional Blizzard fashion the game doesn't have a release date, and from the sounds of things it likely won't be coming out in 2011.